Terms & Definitions

Authentic materials - Materials used in the target culture for actual communicative needs. They should
enable the learner to hear, read, and produce language as it is used in the target culture.

Authentic tasks - Tasks or activities that are used in the “real” world for actual communication needs.
Teachers can have learners do authentic tasks for practice or for real world application.

Classroom library - An area of the classroom where students can fi nd books and resource materials
for individual or group study.

Extensive Reading/ Listening - Free voluntary reading of or listening to material that the learner
chooses for pleasure or other personal purposes. For more on this topic, see:
• Extensive Reading Pages
http://www.extensivereading.net/
• Extensive Reading: Why? And How? by Timothy Bell.
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Bell-Reading.html

Holistic language - Language treated as a whole, with integration of skills. Realia Objects used for
teaching aides, such as food, photographs, tools, clothing, tools, items from nature, etc.

Target audience - The people for whom something is created or performed. For example, a tourism
brochure targets tourists and uses pictures and language that will appeal and be accessible to them.
When students create a project, their target audience is whoever will be reading or using it.